Best song in English labeled the best ever

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Songs labelled the best ever refers to songs which have been considered the world's best songs. Although taste and judgment are subjective, the songs listed here have achieved a notable level of fame, through critical and popular consensus. For inclusion in this list, all songs must be referenced.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division * Was the #1 song in the New Musical Express 2002 list of The Top 10	4
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones * Voted the greatest rock song of all time by VH1 in 200	4
"Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan * The top song on Rolling Stone's five hundred greatest songs ever written	4
"Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen * 1. 1 in Mojo Magazine's 2003 list of The Ultimate Jukebox: 100 Singles You Mus	4
"(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding * Topped this top 100 list.	3
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye * Was listed as the best single ever by noted music critic D	2
"Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles * The top song in a 1997 poll by Mojo Magazine as shown in the char	2
"Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson * Was the best song voted by UK voters in a worldwide poll.	2
"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton * Voted #1 on TIME magazine's 2004 list of The 100 Best Pop Songs of All	2
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana * Number 1 on an all time best song list held by Q magazine in 1998.[8] *	1
"Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin * Voted the best rock song of all time by voters to radio station Planet	1
"It Must Have Been Love by Roxette * Was voted the best song ever in a poll by one of Sweden's largest radio statio	1
"Anarchy in the U.K." by Sex Pistols * Voted #1 on Sounds magazine's 1986 list of The 100 Best Singles of All	1
"Blister in the Sun" by The Violent Femmes * In 2005, it was voted the Most Essential song of all time by Aust	1
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen * In 1977, only two years after its release, it was named 'The Best Single Of The	1
"Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen (1975) * Ranked #1 on VH1 Australia's 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time.	1
"Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol * Was voted the best song ever in a poll by Britain's Virgin Radio.	1
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum * Voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners.	1
"Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack * Topped a Radio 1 chart as the greatest song ever in 1998.	0
"The Unforgiven" by Metallica * Designated as the number one song on WXPN's 885 All Time Greatest Songs Countd	0
"We Are the Champions" by Queen * Voted the world's favourite song in a global poll of 700,000 music fans.	0
"Wonderwall" by Oasis * Topped 2007 worldwide ABD poll for greatest song.	0
"What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye * Topped Spain's Rock de Lux 1998 list of The Top 150 Songs from the 20th Cen	0
"One" by U2 * A poll of the 1001 Best Songs Ever Recorded was conducted in the UK and was voted on by Q Magazi	0
"Live Forever" by Oasis * Voted the #1 greatest song of all time in a poll run by Q magazine in 2006.	0
"Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley * Topped Sweden's Nerikes Allehanda's 1992 list of The 50 Best Rock Songs of	0
"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath * Was number one on VH1's list of 40 greatest metal songs.	0
"Imagine" by John Lennon * Voted as the best song ever by the Australian Daily Telegraph in 2004. * Listed on	0
"Back in Black" by AC/DC * Was voted the best song ever on Triple M's Rock Anthems and is frequently found in	0
"Yesterday", The Beatles (1965) * According to the Guinness Book of Records, "Yesterday" has the mos	0

― acrobat, Saturday, 12 May 2007 19:49 (eighteen years ago)

Unreferenced songs

"A Nation Once Again" by The Wolfe Tones

* was voted best song of all time in poll for the BBC world service. The most common reason given for voting for the song was 800 years of oppression.[citation needed] -->

"I Walk the Line", Johnny Cash

* Often revered as one of the most influential songs of all time and kickstarted the career of one of the greatest musicians of all time. -->

"Paranoid" by Black Sabbath

* Considered the greatest heavy metal song ever, and was Black Sabbath's greatest hit. [citation needed] -->

"Rock Lobster" by [The B-52's]]

* Considered by several people worldwide to be the best song ever.

Can anyone find references for them?

― acrobat, Saturday, 12 May 2007 19:53 (eighteen years ago)

weird poll but i like it. and as an elvis fan i didn't vote for jailhouse rock.

― whatever, Saturday, 12 May 2007 20:51 (eighteen years ago)

"Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol * Was voted the best song ever in a poll by Britain's Virgin Radio.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:19 (eighteen years ago)

"It Must Have Been Love by Roxette * Was voted the best song ever in a poll by one of Sweden's largest radio stations. " WHATEVER

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:22 (eighteen years ago)

who the fuck is vanessa carlton

― abanana, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:24 (eighteen years ago)

"voted on by Q Magazine writers and a selection of well-known musicians."

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:33 (eighteen years ago)

a worldwide poll.
a global poll of 700,000 music fans.
worldwide ABD poll

They never asked me.

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is my all time favourite single. So I voted for that one.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:35 (eighteen years ago)

Shittest poll so far, nul points, would not vote again

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:42 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't vote at all in fact.

ATTN ALL ILXORS PLEASE DO NOT VOTE IN THIS POLL

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:43 (eighteen years ago)

billie jean

― groovemaaan, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:45 (eighteen years ago)

a global poll of 700,000 music fans.

http://thephoenix.com/SoxBlog/content/binary/capt.ab065e03c87e4cd1b9a53d7019efa17c.mets_red_sox_baseball_mamd115.jpg

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 12 May 2007 22:46 (eighteen years ago)

I guess I was a little harsh up there. We're cool right?

― ledge, Saturday, 12 May 2007 23:04 (eighteen years ago)

love will tear us apart.

― funny farm, Saturday, 12 May 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

All I know is I want to stay far, far away from WXPN if they think The Unforgiven is the best song of all time.

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 12 May 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

"Blister in the sun" is now being used to sell obesity on North American television. Depressing? Or just a sign of the end times? I'm a pendulum.

― violoncellos, Saturday, 12 May 2007 23:22 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, this one is strange ... and strangely brilliant. "Chasing Cars?" "A Thusand Miles." A poll is only as good as the respondents, I say. Not that either of those is a bad song, mind you.

― Jiminy Krokus, Sunday, 13 May 2007 00:29 (eighteen years ago)

how much does obesity go for? violent femmes all got fat. most hated band in high school for sure.

― keythkeyth, Sunday, 13 May 2007 03:41 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.undercover.com.au/pics/kanyewestpromouni2004.jpg

Hip hop musician Kanye West said of "A Thousand Miles" on his iTunes celebrity playlist that "this must be the white song that all black people like",[23] and Carlton said that other rappers such as Fabolous and Ja Rule "really like this song".[24]

― acrobat, Sunday, 13 May 2007 13:50 (eighteen years ago)

i thought Kanye said that about Franz Ferdinand 'Take Me Out'

― blueski, Sunday, 13 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

i thought he said that about fiona apple.

anyway there are only four songs in this poll worthy of consideration to be the WINNER - 'a thousand miles' is definitely one of them.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 13 May 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

Argh god that first post is so badly-formatted it hurts to read it. In the interests of readable polls everywhere, I call upon ILX to sabotage this poll by all voting for Roxette.

― Matt DC, Sunday, 13 May 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

how would that be sabotage matt? that is another one of the obvious four.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 13 May 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.alandoshna.com/img/ironman_8.jpg

The lyrics of the song, which may be metaphorical, describe the titular character. It is unsure if he is still in full possession of his faculties. He is largely ignored by those who pass him by, even though he had made the sacrifice of being turned to steel "when he traveled time for the future of mankind." As Iron Man stares at the world, he plots his revenge and then acts it out. The song indicates that Iron Man may have died and come back to life ("vengeance from the grave" and "Iron Man lives again"); at any rate, Iron Man has become fed up with the way he has been treated by those he served and begins to "kill the people he once saved."

― acrobat, Sunday, 13 May 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2591357.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/features/topten/

^ links to the Wolfe Tones thing ^

Over 150,000 votes cast from 155 different countries and the Beatles didn't even make the top ten :)

― onimo, Sunday, 13 May 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago)

http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/ANTOINE_1.preview.jpg

According to lead singer Gordon Gano, this song is "not" about masturbation as popularly thought. He wrote this song about a girl he had a crush on in high school. Gordon was sensitive about his small hands, and on the first day of school a girl came up to him, held his hands in the air, and exclaimed, "Look what small hands he has!" So, he wrote the song from the perspective of a girl lusting after a boy with big hands. This explains the "big hands I know you're the one" line.[1]

― acrobat, Sunday, 13 May 2007 23:26 (eighteen years ago)

Grapevine gets my vote. The most baffling inclusion on a pretty baffling list is Vanessa Carlton.

― chap, Sunday, 13 May 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.frankdecaro.com/recipes/photos/batman-and-robin/Batman%20Kiss.jpg

The lyrical content of "The Unforgiven" deals with a old gay child who is assimilated into a highly conformist heteresexual society from the moment of his birth. Never allowed to express himself or display any signs of his homosexuallity, he lives his life as a faceless, nameless number of many. This could reference singer James Hetfield's upbringing in Christian Science. In his final moments of life, he looks back on his life with nothing but bitterness and regret.

There were two gayvideos for "The Unforgiven" - a short movie that explains the story behind the song more, and the shorter, mainstream release that features shots of the band playing, interspersed with scenes from the short movie.

Some fans of the comic book character Batman have noted the similarities between the lyrics and the character, most notably his portrayal in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

― acrobat, Monday, 14 May 2007 09:30 (eighteen years ago)

"Dock of the Bay" ahead of "Blister In The Sun". You know it is.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

Good poll.

― Mark G, Monday, 14 May 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

A lot of these songs are sad mood-wise. 'Billie Jean' included. This puts me off voting for any of them. The best song ever should be a more joyous affair if not completely euphoric without being in denial. 'Satisfaction' somehow manages this despite the frustration behind it. MAYBE 'Live Forever' does too but you can't really dance to it (i feel this is important even if we're just talking about strength as song/piece of music).

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)

Forgot what I voted for.

Oh yeah, Louie Louie. You can dance to it, and it's sadness at his girl being across the sea it's OK as he's going back to her.

― Mark G, Monday, 14 May 2007 11:56 (eighteen years ago)

great riff as well

― blueski, Monday, 14 May 2007 11:57 (eighteen years ago)

1. A Nation Once Again, The Wolfe Tones

2. Vande Mataram, Various artists

3. Dil Dil Pakistan, Vital Signs

4. Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu, llayaraaja

5. Poovum Nadakkuthu Pinchum Nadakkuthu, Thirumalai Chandran

6. Ana wa Laila, Kazem El Saher

7. Reetu haruma timi hariyali basant hau nadihruma timi pabitra ganga hau, Arun Thapa

8. Believe, Cher

9. Chaiyya chaiyya, A R Rahman

10. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:28 (eighteen years ago)

This poll is missing "It Takes Two" Spin magazine's "greatest single of all time."

― mulla atari, Monday, 14 May 2007 12:36 (eighteen years ago)

unexpected

― acrobat, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 08:45 (eighteen years ago)

Really? If someone said "There are four winners", I'd have guessed them!

― Mark G, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

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